When Balto beat the
Clubs across Co. Wicklow battled hard to win the
BACK in 1984 the GAA celebrated its centenary year. All county boards were urged to run a competition in hurling and football to commemorate this milestone.
Wicklow obliged and while Baltinglass would go on to beat Blessington in the football final there were plenty of interesting games along the way.
One of the stipulations was that the team in the lower grade received home venue in the tie. This created plenty of interest and in the main it was a success.
Almost all the clubs took part in the football and the hurling. The hurling competition did not run as smoothly with the replayed final not played until late November 1985! That is a story for another day.
The cup for the football competition was the Lawless Hotel Centenary Cup donated by Pat and Mary Phelan while the hurling cup was The Ashford House Cup donated by Declan Roche. This week we will have a look at the football competition.
The football began in early June and started with a bang. Junior B champions from 1983 Lacken scored a 1-16 to 1-15 extra-time win over Senior side Annacurra. The teams were level on no fewer than eight occasions before Alfie Zeller kicked a last-minute winner to earn them a crack at Baltinglass in the first round.
St Pats were put to the pin of their collar in ‘The Gap’ before eventually getting the better of the Billies by 2-4 to 0-8 thanks mainly to two Henry Leonard goals.
Junior side Newcastle welcomed their neighbours Rathnew and made their Senior opponents work really hard for a 1-10 to 1-8 win in a cracking game watched by a decent crowd.
In other preliminary round games Kilcoole beat St Fergal’s, Kilmacanogue got the better of Knockananna under the Sugarloaf and Coolboy travelled to Donard and beat their great rivals in the Junior B grade in a typically tight encounter between these two.
The tie of the first round was at Dunlavin where Newtown took the home team to extra-time before losing 2-10 to 2-13. A young lad by the name of Mick Murtagh kicking five points for the hosts.
John Lynch and Frankie Murphy were the top scorers for Newtown in a determined display after a long trip across the mountains.
Lacken welcomed Baltinglass for their second-round clash and although they found themselves behind by 1-10 to 0-2 at one stage they rallied and got the gap down to three points before Baltinglass finished strongly with points from Kevin O’Brien, Michael O’Neill and a two-goal blast from Peter Burke seeing them through. Vincent Balfe and Cillian Traynor were the main score getters for Lacken this time as they bowed out 2-14 to 2-7.
An all-Senior tie got underway in at Tinahely where the home team struggled early on against Kiltegan.
Dickie Doran shot 1-1 before half-time to swing it in the home teams’ favour. The Cremin brothers, Ned and Tom, were in scoring form for the visitors and had the gap down to one with minutes remaining before Brendan Furlong and Jimmy Hogan had points to seal a 1-10 to 1-7 home win.
A Peter Geoghegan goal helped Valleymount win 1-7 to 0-6 after a tricky visit to Glenmalure to play Ballinacor.
Two Kenny Dunne goals helped Hollywood over Barndarrig in Rathdrum 3-4 to 1-4.
The Glen made the long trip to Pearse’s Park and beat the Geraldines 1-10 to 2-6. Vincent Kavanagh, Paddy Curran and Larry Daly got the points with Austin McPartlin finding the net.
Over in Shillelagh, Senior team Stratford were pushed all the way before escaping with a 0-9 to 0-5 win.
Éire Óg got the better of local rival Kilmacanogue 0-11 to 1-6 in Greystones.
athnew made the long trek to The Crab Lane where they defeated Coolkenno.
Carnew conquered Ballymoney while there were also wins for Laragh in Enniskerry and Coolboy again as another west team, Kilbride, bit the dust this time.
Senior champions Blessington had a win in Roundwood over An Tochar while Kilcoole got a walk over from Arklow Rocks.
Avondale, who were fancied by some to win the competition, pipped Ashford.
The shock of this round came in Emmett Park where Bray shocked St Patrick’s 3-6 to 0-8; a handful of Senior teams already gone.
In the second round The Glen entertained near neighbours Hollywood. The Glen men made their Senior opponents work hard for their 2-6 to 0-8 win. Ger Murphy and Joe Kelly with Hollywood goals in the first half. The Glen introduced Austin McPartlin and Peter Case which improved things and would have been closer but for going for goals too early.
The other derby game drew a big crowd to Tinahely as Coolboy gave up home advantage to take on the hot favourites. Coolboy put in a fantastic effort and Tinahely only pulled away in the closing stages to win 1-10 to 0-7.
County champions Blessington done the damage to home team Dunlavin in the first half. Wind assisted they led 1-7 to 1-0 with Ashley O’Sullivan the Dunlavin goal scorer. Pat O’Toole finished with a tally of 0-7 against his former club including their only second half point in a 1-8 to 1-5 win with
Joe English kicking 0-4 for Dunlavin in the second-half fightback.
Bray continued their giant killing with Stratford their latest Senior victims in Bray this time in a 2-11 to 2-5 win.
Baltinglass travelled to Laragh and it took a hat-trick of goals from none other than Kevin O’Brien playing at midfield to see the Slaneysiders’ through, 3-11 to 2-8. Gerry Grehan topped the scoring charts for Laragh with 1-3.
Carnew won the battle of the dual clubs with Avondale to reach the last eight. Rathnew had their third straight away win this time in Greystones over Éire Óg. Kilcoole won an all-Senior clash against Valleymount 0-13 to 0-7 in Kilcoole. The last eight was made up of all Senior teams with the exception of Bray.
In the quarter-finals Blessington had to fight all the way to see off Kilcoole. Mick Kelly scored a Kilcoole penalty to level the scores at 1-4 each at the break with Martin Sargent the Blessington goalscorer. Once again Pat O’Toole topped the charts with 0-5 as they won 1-13 to 1-5.
Bray welcomed Hollywood to Emmet Park and won through to the last four 0-6 to 1-2 in a game that ended prematurely.
Tinahely were beaten at home by great rivals Carnew in what many seen as a shock. The Carnew men were well worth their 1-7 to 0-7 win in a determined display and it was sweet revenge for their championship loss to Tinahely earlier in the summer.
The tie of the round was in Merrymeeting where Rathnew, finally at home, welcomed great rivals Baltinglass. The report the following week read, ‘Even the